Should the bolded be taken to mean that the EE-3 goes from a 21 - 12 base damage range to 24 - 14 explosive damage range? So that, other than the SE-14C, all other guns are getting the full 10 explosive damage per bullet? That would seem to make the A280C and DH-17 almost the best choices with it, given the inaccuracy of the DLT-19 and RT-97C.

Should the bolded be taken to mean that the EE-3 goes from a 21 - 12 base damage range to 24 - 14 explosive damage range?

Yes. Before the patch the bullets itself stayed the same but now for EE-3's damage model changed when using explosive shot. Unless separately mentioned (EE-3 and SE-14C) weapon gets normal 10dmg explosive shot.

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3VerstsNorth - Analysis of game mechanics in BF4 (tickrates, effects of tickrate, etc)

Should the bolded be taken to mean that the EE-3 goes from a 21 - 12 base damage range to 24 - 14 explosive damage range?

Yes. Before the patch the bullets itself stayed the same but now for EE-3's damage model changed when using explosive shot. Unless separately mentioned (EE-3 and SE-14C) weapon gets normal 10dmg explosive shot.

Semi-related to my previous question: The explosive shot buff converts the weapon damage type into explosive (i.e. big yellow bolts) and not blaster+explosive, correct? Can I take that to mean that the Bodyguard trait would apply its 30%/50% damage reduction to the buffed weapon damage as a whole?

e.g. an E-11 buffed with Explosive Shot which normally deals 45-25 explosive damage would have its damage reduced by Bodyguard to 32-18 at Rank 1 and 23-13 at Rank 2 (presuming damage rounds up)?

If my assumption is correct, that makes choosing between Scout and Bodyguard a little tougher for me now that explosive shot cheese seems to be making a return after people got over the recent nerf.

Should the bolded be taken to mean that the EE-3 goes from a 21 - 12 base damage range to 24 - 14 explosive damage range?

Yes. Before the patch the bullets itself stayed the same but now for EE-3's damage model changed when using explosive shot. Unless separately mentioned (EE-3 and SE-14C) weapon gets normal 10dmg explosive shot.

Semi-related to my previous question: The explosive shot buff converts the weapon damage type into explosive (i.e. big yellow bolts) and not blaster+explosive, correct? Can I take that to mean that the Bodyguard trait would apply its 30%/50% damage reduction to the buffed weapon damage as a whole?

e.g. an E-11 buffed with Explosive Shot which normally deals 45-25 explosive damage would have its damage reduced by Bodyguard to 32-18 at Rank 1 and 23-13 at Rank 2 (presuming damage rounds up)?

If my assumption is correct, that makes choosing between Scout and Bodyguard a little tougher for me now that explosive shot cheese seems to be making a return after people got over the recent nerf.

They work like BF frag rounds, which means they do impact+explosive damage and not just explosive damage. The impact damage comes from normal hit and is in most cases same as with original weapon (ie. weapon only gets buffed by having an explosion on impact) but like EE-3 the direct hit damage was changed little to make it more balanced.
So no, bodyguard only protects 30%/50% of the max. 10dmg done by explosion. However it's still a bonus and from my experience bodyguard could save your life in many situations (altho I haven't played much since the patch with nerfed cooldowns).

Links to users' thread list who have made analytical/statistical/mathematical/cool posts on Symthic:

3VerstsNorth - Analysis of game mechanics in BF4 (tickrates, effects of tickrate, etc)